The current influx of thousands of migrants, most of whom are believed to unemployed, unskilled and uneducated, might cause crime rates to skyrocket, police say.
Migrants usually come to Jakarta to find jobs, often staying with relatives who are already residents.
City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Chrysnanda Dwi Laksana said poverty correlated strongly with crimes, especially low-level ones like street violence.
"I'm not saying that the police shouldn't allow people to come to Jakarta. I'm saying that unemployment and poverty are usually linked wih crimes," he told The Jakarta Post.
"How long can they survive? They may do anything to fill their stomachs."
Chrysnanda suggested that the city administration should more closely monitor and screen all incoming migrants to ensure that they would not add to the city's already high number of unemployed.
"It's all for our own good, both for us and the city administration."
Chrysnanda added that the urbanization problem was actually a nationwide issue.
"It comes from a disparity of development throughout this nation. All sectors have been localized in this city, which absorbs all of the money," he said.
"This city, therefore, always seems to offer hope to those unemployed elsewhere in Indonesia. So the urbanization is understandable."
During this year's holiday season, Jakarta experienced a peak of arrivals between Sunday and the early hours of Monday.
Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta, for example, saw more than 43,000 people disembarking from 790 buses coming from various places in Java and Sumatra between Sunday night and Monday early morning.
The number was an increase from last year's 40,000, beritajakarta.com reported.
Pulogadung bus terminal, also in East Jakarta, received more than 28,000 travelers in the same period of arrival peak, which is down from 38,000 last year.
Most travelers arriving at bus terminals are middle- to lower-income people who work in the informal sector, such as housemaids, street vendors and blue collar workers.
The Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), an NGO, challenged the perception that unemployed newcomers were likely to resort to crime.
"I think the police should work harder to overcome the crimes rather than blaming it on the poor," Edi Saidi, a member of UPC, told the Post.
"Crimes are not about whether you are poor or not. It's about people's personalities," he said.
"In fact, corruption offenders, who cause billion of rupiahs in losses, tend to be rich. Those people are far more dangerous to this nation than street criminals."
Edi disagreed that most newcomers to the city were unskilled and uneducated.
"I believe that they would have already prepared their plans of what to do in Jakarta, even if it is only being an ojek *motorcycle taxi* driver," he said.
"Going to a big city with no plan? That sounds like a suicide attempt."
Dion, a 29-year-old porter in Pulo Gadung bus terminal, agreed with Edi.
"My friend, who was also from Bandung, my hometown, suggested that I work as a porter like him. That's why I moved to Jakarta seven years ago."
City manpower agency recorded 560,000 unemployed persons citywide in 2008, up from 530,000 in 2007. (bbs)
